Use this when the server is intermittently slow or unreachable after a quiet period; turn on Always Ready Mode so an instance stays warm instead of scaling to zero.
By default the server scales to zero when it is idle. The next request after a quiet
period has to start the container and validate the license before it can be served, which
takes noticeably longer than a normal request, and can be slow enough that the caller gives
up first.
Symptom: the server works fine most of the time, but occasionally a scenario is very slow
or fails with a connection error, and running it again straight away succeeds. Failures
cluster after periods of no activity.
This pattern is a cold start, not a broken deployment. If the server fails consistently
rather than intermittently, this page is not the fix; see
Troubleshooting.
The previous screen (v1) is still the default. The new dashboard (v2) opens at
make.magicmealkits.com/v2/app-status. Pick the tab
for the screen you use.
Scroll to the Scaling Settings card at the bottom right of the page.
Always Ready Mode shows as DISABLED by default.
3
Enable it
Click the toggle. It keeps one instance warm (minimum instances = 1) so requests are
served immediately instead of waiting for a container to start.The change applies to the running service; no redeploy needed.
4
Confirm
Re-run the scenario that was failing. Response times should be consistent from the first
request, with no slow outlier after an idle period.
Always Ready Mode keeps an instance running around the clock, so the service no longer
scales to zero and usage continues while idle. This is billed by Google Cloud and will
take you past the always-free tier. The App Status page labels the enabled state
Premium Cost for this reason.
Leave it off if occasional slow first requests are acceptable; scheduled scenarios that
run every few minutes usually keep the instance warm on their own, and cold starts only show
up after genuinely quiet periods. Turn it on when requests must respond predictably, such
as webhooks or user-facing automations.See Google Cloud billing for how billing is set up on
your project.
